Chapter 53
Will winced at the painful timbre of Graven’s voice, a hand going to his temple as his vision clouded and memories came rushing back.
“You’re going to tell your crew you ran from this fight. Then, you’re going to lead me to the Skyvault. And you won’t realize what you’ve done until it’s too late.”
He thought back to the little silver device he’d used to send Graven a signal. A tracker. Precise coordinates would make navigating the storm significantly less dangerous, but how had he evaded the shifting mountains?
The question gnawed at him. But there was no way around what he saw before him now: Graven was here.
Will hadn’t run away. But he’d still failed—he’d played right into Graven’s hands, selling them out while his mind wasn’t his own.
He should have known.
But that wasn’t how Nightmare worked.
Shame eating at him, Will pushed Amaya behind his back and turned to face his old mentor.
Graven was unchanged, with Nightmare, Stormfist, and Genesis transforming his human body into something grotesque.
But this time, their party had the distinct displeasure of seeing the Sky Lord in full light.
Aetheric Decay cracked his face, sprouting from where Nightmare was embedded in his skull.
The part of his shirt that was torn to show Genesis revealed the same phenomenon spreading across his chest, far more advanced than Will had ever seen.
“I appreciate you doing the dirty work for us,” Graven said, stalking forward and surveying the vault. “She didn’t give you any trouble, did she?”
Vesper Corsair entered on Graven’s heels—regrettably, still alive. Amaya groaned beside Will, but it came out more like a whimper.
Six more pirates, each of them with greedy gleams in their eyes, slunk in behind Corsair and took in the spectacle that was the Skyvault.
Amaya inched closer to Will, grabbing his sleeve.
“What’s he talking about?” she asked, a waver in her voice. “Will . . . Will, please tell me he’s lying.”
Will didn’t respond, unable to find the words to acknowledge what he’d done.
What Graven made him do. Instead, he clenched his fist and reached for Ultima, cracking the boneglass to activate it.
Power surged through him—cold, then searing hot as the relic melted into his skin.
His vision sharpened, allowing him to perceive every wrinkle and crack on Graven’s deformed face.
The others huddled together, Serena and Sebastian standing guard for Edmund, Grace, and Malcolm.
“Will?” Amaya asked again, her blue eyes wide with hope he was about to squander.
He couldn’t get the words out, clinging to denial. “I . . . I didn’t. I’d never . . .”
Graven’s face broke into a wicked smile. “Ahh . . . but you did.”
“He used Nightmare on you,” Sebastian said in realization. “That’s why you said you ran. Fucking Nightmare, Will?”
“You think I was a willing participant?” Will snapped, turning on his best friend.
Amaya stepped away, her bottom lip quivering as she unstrapped Deadeye from her back. Will’s eyebrows drew together; what was she doing that for? Surely not to use against him, but Ultima allowed no space for clear thinking. Only action. Only violence.
“She has to be used sparingly,” Graven said thoughtfully, tapping the metal fixture on his face containing Nightmare’s robotic eye. “Mind control comes at a high price. But she does come in handy.”
Will whirled back around with an animalistic growl, summoning Hellsgate to his hand. Energy hummed across his body, rage burning like a wildfire beneath his skin. He was a live wire. A grenade.
“Will, it’s okay. It’s not your fault,” Amaya said, reaching for him.
No, it wasn’t okay.
He shoved her away, eyes not leaving Graven.
“I’m going to kill you,” Will said.
Graven chuckled, the sound deep and crooked. “Now, William. No one needs to get hurt here.”
“No one except you.”
“But that’s not how it works, is it? There’s always collateral damage.” Graven stepped forward, Stormfist crackling. Graven glanced at Amaya, the frame, then the incriminating console affixed with a wheel and the Skystone. “Let me guess. You can navigate.”
Amaya lifted her chin slightly, stubbornly defiant. “No. I can’t see anything.”
Graven’s lip curled. He looked at Amaya as if he was about to devour her whole.
Will channeled his shame into the purest rage, magnified by Ultima thrumming against his skin. There would be no negotiation. No explanation. There would only be blood—Graven’s blood.
“You want to speak to her, you’ll have to go through me,” Will said, brandishing Hellsgate.
Graven let out a theatrical sigh. “Always the hard way with you, William.” Stormfist sparked to life. “You remember the deal, boys,” he said to his men. “The girl and the doorway are not to be harmed.”
Not interested in letting Graven have the first move, Will sprang into action, raising Hellsgate and leaping into the air. Ultima gave him unnatural altitude, and when he landed, the entire mountain shuddered. Stormfist met Hellsgate, just like before.
“New toy?” Graven snarled, swinging Stormfist to push Will back.
Will didn’t move, his feet firmly planted on the stone floor.
Graven grunted and tried again, but with the added force of Stormfist. Purple lightning struck Hellsgate, and Will felt the tingling sensation of electricity entering his body through his fingertips.
He broke contact, disappearing into black smoke and materializing on Graven’s other side.
Will knew Hellsgate wouldn’t kill Graven. At this point, even the legendary sword was merely a distraction. He needed to rip Genesis out of Graven’s chest and then finish the job.
He scanned the vault and saw Amaya standing on a workbench, firing Deadeye without reservation.
She hit her targets, two of Graven’s men falling to their knees.
No one was attacking her, thanks to Graven’s orders—Maker be praised—and Grace was huddled beneath the bench.
But that only left Sebastian, Serena, Malcolm, and Edmund on the ground to fight off Vesper Corsair and the rest of Graven’s men, and only one of the four specialized in combat.
They weren’t quite outnumbered, but Will wasn’t willing to risk them being outgunned.
“Malcolm!” Will shouted, narrowly dodging a blow from Graven. It was harder without Sixth Sense, although Ultima helped compensate for his deficiency. “Call for backup!”
The automaton chirped out a merry reply incongruous with the urgency of the situation, but Will knew he’d follow through. He turned his attention back to Graven, trusting Sebastian and, remarkably, Amaya, to hold the line for at least a few minutes.
Given their location, Graven was more cautious with his attacks than he’d been in the warehouse.
He didn’t strike Stormfist into the floor or cause rubble to rain down from above.
Their fight was closer, more intimate; he wouldn’t risk harming the doorway.
It worked for Will, since his entire plan revolved around pushing through Graven’s defenses and ripping out Genesis.
Graven met Will’s blows with ferocity for now, but Genesis didn’t protect him from fatigue. With Ultima keeping Will’s senses sharp and body strong, the only thing he needed to worry about was not getting hit until he wore down his opponent.
“How did you get in?” Will asked, ducking under Graven’s swing and coming at him from behind.
He used Hellsgate to switch sides, where he tried to reach for Genesis, but Graven closed Stormfist around his forearm and shoved him back.
Without Ultima, Will was certain that would have hurt a lot worse, but all he felt were soft snaps of electricity. “How did you get through the storm?”
Graven almost looked bored at the question. “Oh, that. How long has it been since you saw the Baroness? Five years? Six?”
Will furrowed his brow, flashing to Graven’s other side. “Something like that.”
“We’ve been stationed in Aereasead for almost as long, preparing her to brave the storm.” Graven threw a bolt of lightning at Will, who let it bounce off Hellsgate. “Massive upgrades to the hull, the engine. Raising the flight ceiling. And no small amount of relics.”
Graven had been preparing almost eighty years for this—of course he had taken the time and resources to modify his ship. And after defecting, it wasn’t like Will had kept close tabs on the Baroness. He’d tried to forget it existed.
Will chanced a glance beyond Graven’s shoulder to the door, but he couldn’t see the upgraded Baroness from this angle.
What he did see was the Maelstrom crew, coming in as reinforcements.
The rumble of windskiffs rose above the cacophony of fighting. Will’s chest surged with pride as his crew leapt into the fray—Ford and Crowe with their battle axes, Nicholas, and even Mouse came rushing in with a pistol Will didn’t want to know how he’d gotten.
Just like that, the tables turned. The Maelstrom crew easily outnumbered Graven’s men.
Or, they did for about ten seconds.
Corsair and the six men Graven brought didn’t comprise his entire crew, and the rest of them came in right on the Maelstrom crew’s heels, turning the Skyvault into an all-out battlefield.
It became a frenzy, the Skyvault overrun with pirates and swords and guns and relics.
While everyone avoided the mysterious arch on instinct, the rest of the vault didn’t fare as well.
Glasses of concentrated Aether shattered, releasing the substance into the air.
Vials and graduated cylinders plummeted from their shelves, and sheets of paper flew around the room like a snowstorm.
Will couldn’t care less about the lost artifacts. He wanted this entire place to become obsolete, doorway included. But if Grace’s calculation was correct, they had no way of knowing what would happen if they destroyed it.
That meant killing Graven was now the one and only solution.
Will wouldn’t let Amaya spend the rest of her life on the run or imprisoned, sentenced to a life unleashing a monster on other worlds while she watched hers burn. She deserved peace.
And when all else failed, the only way to achieve peace was through war.
So it was a good thing Graven had taught Will well.
He made a reckless lunge for Genesis, succeeding in scraping his fingertips against its surface. The relic’s texture sent shivers down his spine. It was warm, with gears embedded into an almost rubbery surface—it seemed alive, just as Ultima seemed alive.
Graven bared his teeth in a snarl. “That won’t be as easy as you think, boy.”
“I’m a lot stronger than you think.”
Before Graven came up with a retort, Sebastian’s voice rang out above the fighting. “Will!”
Will flashed to Graven’s back so he could see Sebastian without letting down his guard; Bas never raised an alarm without ample need, and today was no different. He and Serena were being swarmed.
Whiplash was excellent for keeping enemies at arm's length and Sebastian had given his second relic, Barricade, to Serena to shield them. But it wasn’t enough. They were being backed into a corner, with Mouse and Grace, of all people, stuck behind them.
“Amaya!” Will looked to the table she’d been standing on, acting as their sniper, but she was no longer there.
“Shit.”
There wasn’t time to address the way his heart fell or the full-body panic that came with not knowing where she was.
Crowd control. He needed to do some crowd control before things got even more out of hand. It would only take a moment, then he’d find her.
Will left Graven hanging, launching himself toward the ceiling and landing where the action was most concentrated. The mountain shook once more, the floor cracking and throwing Graven’s men off-balance.
Ultima fueled Will with bloodlust and the insatiable desire to rip limb from limb.
So he did just that, moving through Graven’s crew like a wild animal and slashing bodies with Hellsgate as he cleared a path to Sebastian and Serena.
The new relic overpowered Will’s senses, forcing him to hear every slice and keenly feel the blade’s drag as it tore through flesh.
Will hadn’t blinked at violence in more than a decade, but now more than ever before, the gruesome sights and sensations drove him.
Only when he’d cut down nearly a dozen men did he reach Bas and Serena.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, scanning both of them.
Serena had a head injury, blood dripping down her face.
Sebastian looked okay, albeit exhausted.
He nodded, rolling his shoulder and snapping Whiplash at an enemy who dared approach.
Hearing more footsteps behind him, Will whipped around and plunged Hellsgate into another pirate’s chest. The light leaving the man’s eyes made Ultima hum with sadistic delight.
“We’re all right,” Sebastian said. “Thanks. Ultima working out?”
“It will once I get close enough to tear Genesis out of his chest.”
“How do you plan to do that?” Serena asked.
“Persistence.” Will made eye contact with Sebastian, realizing maybe this wasn’t a one-man job. Graven couldn’t hold two fronts at once. Will cocked a brow and Sebastian nodded, seeming to read his thoughts.
Mouse and Grace were pressed against the wall—well, Grace was pressed against the wall. Mouse kept her pinned there, his arms extended to his sides in the best form of protection he could manage. Will’s gaze softened, the thrall of Ultima softening for a beat.
“Here.” Will pulled a dagger from his belt he never used and shoved it into Grace’s hand. “You know how to use this?”
She stared at it, bewildered.
“No.”
“Well, necessity is the best teacher. Mouse, get her back to the ship.”
“I can fight!” Mouse protested.
“I don’t care.” Will wasn’t about to let literal children die here, and he had no intention of facing Amaya’s wrath if something happened to Grace.
Amaya.
His entire body lurched again. He had to find her.
“Take Miss Hargreeves back, now,” he ordered.
Mouse and Grace exchanged a glance, grabbed one another’s hands, and ran without further argument.
“Thanks,” Serena huffed.
Sebastian patted Will on the back. “Ready?”
“Yes. No—wait for my signal,” Will said. “Amaya!” He spun around once, twice, focusing on the areas where the fighting was thickest, hoping—or dreading—he’d find her head of dark, curly hair.
Will resisted the instinct to worry she was dead. She had Sixth Sense and had learned to defend herself well with Eagle Eye and Deadeye combined. If harm came to her, this entire fight had no point.
But that didn’t mean she wasn’t—
“Looking for something, William?” Graven growled in his deep baritone. Will whirled toward the sound of his voice, nearly dropping to his knees when he saw Graven next to the arch, Amaya pulled tight against his chest with a knife held to her throat.